Gingerbread and Lights

This afternoon Sadie built her first gingerbread house and, no, we didn't buy that house pre-made. We are just that talented.  Well.... actually, Lolly's sweet parents gave us this along with 11 other gifts so that we could do a twelve days of Christmas.  Sadie's favorite part, as you may have guessed, was eating the decorations.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

After decorating the gingerbread house and convincing Sadie that she had to have something other than gingerbread house decorations for dinner, we deciding to continue our festive Christmas spirit by going to see the lights at the Mesa temple.

In case you couldn't tell, we are sitting on a giant petrified log. Pretty awesome!

Fun With Photoshop

After

Before

Christmas Helpers

We got the holidays started last week when we put up our Christmas tree. Sadie and David were excited to help us "decorate." I was prepared to fight David all day the next day as he tried to redecorate, but he has yet to even try.
Sadie put all the ornaments on the same corner of the tree.

Chris needed a little help putting the star on top. And yes, Sadie is wearing a blue floral dress, a purple tutu, and two mismatched bows.

The Zoo

We went to the Zoo last week and I remembered my camera and managed to take a few pictures while we were there. We wore our long sleeve shirts because we were afraid that it would be cold, but because it was still in the 70's we got pretty hot. Luckily, that is how we like it. I hope my kids don't die of cold next week in Utah!

November

Sadie has been making progress in 'reading' this month. We've been doing some simple lessons almost everyday, but it seemed like all of a sudden she was overwhelmed with them. I thought that I might be pushing her too much and that she is too young, so we took a few days off. We tried a new lesson a few days later and she had no problem sounding out and recognizing most of the words on the first try. Yay! Who knows when she will really be 'reading' but I love that it is something that we work on together and I feel like I am actually teaching her something as a mom.

David is finally walking! He took his sweet time but he is now walking all over. He has also become the "No" monster lately. He seems to be picking up new words almost everyday. Lately he has been saying eyes, shoes, socks, and Buzz.

Halloween

Sadie picked out her own costume this year. She was so excited to be a fairy princess.

David was a little monkey.

All of us at the ward trunk or treat.

Sadie loved handing out candy after she was done trick-or- treating (we stopped trick-or-treating when she said that her bag was too heavy to carry.) We enjoyed our little fire pit. Later in the night we moved closer to it to keep warm. I guess a dress and sandals isn't the warmest attire.

And last, but not least, my handsome husband!! If you heard a rumor that he is an old man, it is true! He turns 31 today.

Pictures

Nothing new around here, I just wanted to update with some pictures.

My boys.

Me and the kiddos.

Playing around at the park.

David spends a lot of time in the stroller because he doesn't like sand or grass.

Getting ready for church.

And a sweet little outfit on my little guy.

Farewell to Rory

It turns out that I am not so much a dog person. I don't like dog hair, the smell of dogs, touching dog toys, or really even touching dogs all that much. So when Chris said he was starting to get annoyed with Rory needing so much attention and with another baby on the way, I decided it was time to find her a new house. I thought that Sadie would be sad, but she hasn't asked about her at all since she left. This morning she was actually complaining to me that she missed her cat. Her webkinz cat, that is.


Rory now lives with a pug and two owners that have plenty of attention to give, as they don't have children. I checked in with her new mom and they are thrilled to have her and things are going great. They just wanted to know if she ever settled down. Haha. I'm thinking maybe in two or three years she will.


Some other exciting news is that we are officially having a GIRL!!!! Yay for pink and dresses and hair bows. The amazing thing is that it took us about 15 seconds of debate before we agreed on a name. We decided to go through the baby name book before we talked, so we'd have some names prepared to discuss. Chris was joking with some friends the other day that I picked out our last two kids names, so I told him that it was his job to propose a name, and see if I'd agree. So we sat down to talk, and he said, How about this name?? And I said perfect!! I love it.

So, what is the name?? Well, we'll share in February on her birthday. Only 4 and 1/2 more months! We can't wait.

Sept 9

Sadie(rella) - 43 months
One of Sadie's favorite past times lately has been scrubbing dishes. She also helps me fold laundry, make dinner (her favorite dinner making activity is to help me clean the lettuce in the salad spinner) and she usually cleans up her toys every night before bedtime.

When she is not learning to be Cinderella she is most often found playing with her Legos. She can take apart and rebuild the same thing hundreds of times. The funny part is she often asks me to play with her and I almost always say yes because once I touch one of her beloved towers or Legos she decides that she would rather do all the building and destroying and doesn't want me to play with her after all.

David- 14 months
David is my sweet little loud buddy. One of his favorite toys is a barn that makes different animal noises when you open the doors. He also loves looking at animal books. He just laughs and gets so excited to see the different animals.


We took a trip to Utah this past month where I took almost no pictures. We had a great time seeing both our families and some friends. We did lots of shopping, rafted down the Ogden river, took a scenic drive to Eden to see Chris' parents new land, and went to This is the Place Monument. We also went to my favorite place, Kneaders, a few times for lunch and treats.

While we were in Highland we went to the city splash park. It has water that shoots into the air and a little lazy river. David loved the lazy river, especially the rocks in it that spray up water. It may look like he is drinking the water, but he is actually blowing bubbles down into it.

Sadie enjoying the water.

Baby #3- -5 months
We went in today for our 18 week ultrasound to find out gender today and found out that we are having a(n)--- uncooperative baby. The ultrasound technician was so nice. After the baby wouldn't move and wouldn't move she had us go out in the lobby and walk around and then come back in for another look 15 minutes later, but still the baby wouldn't move. I'm such a planner that it is driving me crazy not to know. Hopefully we can found out in another couple weeks!

Beach Bums

While in California we stayed with Lani's family and had a great time getting to know them better. Sadie developed a little crush on Connor, Lani's brother, and decided that Lani's sister were actually her sisters.

We had some unexpected visitors in the form of dolphins and seals. The dolphins were so close that Chris, Lani, and Josh all jumped in the water in hopes of getting to swim with them. . . they were dreaming.

At first David did not want anything to do with the sand, but he warmed up to the beach.

And we were able to meet up with Becca on the last night. It was great to catch up . . . and see her pregnant!

Disneyland

We finally followed the AZ trend and went to California for the weekend. Lani and I left with the kids a few days early, and the boys followed soon after. We went to LA's fabric/fashion district and had a blast checking out all the inexpensive fabric and notions.
The highlight of the trip was probably Disneyland. Sadie loved every ride that she could go on, but David's favorite was It's a Small World. He couldn't stop moving and smiling.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from Disneyland, and Chris and I are in quite a few of them because Lani took so many great pictures for us!

1 Year Old

A year ago we met David when he looked like this:

Now, a year later he has turned into this:

A few pics of David eating his birthday cake:

We just love this little guy and think we are so lucky to have him.

Our Sadie girl is becoming a great swimmer. She has swim from one side of the pool to the other (granted our pool is rather small) without help. She looks forward to the special time of day when we go swimming together.
I had to laugh and take a picture of this 'display' I found in her room the other day:
A few weeks ago we went camping with our ward and had a great time. Sadie looked like a little orphan who hadn't bathed in weeks.

David showing us his breakfast.